Thursday, January 22, 2015

Project Charter

Project Charter

The project charter is one of the most important documents on your project. A well written charter will provide everything project team, the project sponsor, and other prominent stakeholders a good understanding of what the project all about. I found that graduate students struggle and developing a good comprehensive charter. It appears that graduate students struggle with either too much detail or not enough breath for the project to be well defined.

The project charter is typically the document that authorizes project. The development of the project charter can vary significantly depending on the organization chartering the project. The Project Management Institute recommends that the project sponsor should author the project charter and this is the ideal situation. The process of writing the project charter and facilitating input from various stakeholders provides a project sponsor with a good overview of the project and provides a good foundation for conversations with the assigned project manager. Often, it is the project manager facilitates the process of developing the charter and then goes to the project sponsors and other stakeholders to develop a group ownership of the project. This is a great opportunity for the project manager to clearly define the roles of the project sponsor and other major stakeholders in a way that supports the ongoing management of the project.

The components and the depth of the project charter are related to the profile the project. Large complex projects can have a very lengthy and detailed project charter, while less complex projects might have a one or two page charter. The Project Management Institute recommends the following:
·         Project purpose; why is this project authorize? What will it accomplish?
·         Project goals and a description of how these goals will be measured. The goals should reflect the success criteria for the project.
·         High level requirements; requirements detail what must be accomplished for the project to be a success. Requirements include business requirements, stakeholder requirements, solution requirements, project requires (such as acceptance criteria) and transition requirements. High level means listing those major requirements identified early in the project. Detailed requirements will be identified as the project progresses.
·         Major assumptions; what are the major assumptions made about the project, i.e. resource availability.
·         Major constraints; what major constraints are known i.e. the typhoon season on a project in India.
·         High level risks; what are the major risks that might impact project success. This is not a detailed risk analysis. This is the identification of the major risk known or suspected.
·         Summary milestone schedule
·         Summary budget
·         Stakeholder list; identification the stakeholder who can influence project success and stakeholders significantly affected by the project outcome.
·         Project approval requirements
·         Assigned project manager, responsibility, and authority level; this is your chance to indicate the requirement for executives and clients to timely approve project deliverables and changes.
·         Name and authority of the sponsor; this is your chance to detail your expectations of your project sponsor and develop alignment on expectations.

Your project may have more or less than the suggestions listed here. The project profile will determine the appropriate components of the project charter. One of the primary purposes of the project charter is to provide an overview of the project. A good project charter reflects alignment of the goals of the major stakeholders and their commitment to project success.  

I am interested in the experience of project managers in developing a project charter and their opinion of its value. Let me know what you think.

Russ



Saturday, January 17, 2015

Client management and climate change

January 17, 2014

Today I was thinking about the owner or client of the project that just seems unreasonable. I remember a project on a fixed bid contract where the client was convinced that the project was bid below cost and the profit will be made one change orders. This was not my project, but I remember the frustration of the project manager every time the client received a cost report. The client began every discussion with the statement of his assumption that the bid was too low and the project manager was trying to make up the cost through various ways.

Observing this project, I saw how difficult communication and the actual project execution was based on assumptions that were not true. No matter how much data, how many people concluded that the bid was a legitimate and cost appropriate bid, the client maintained confidence in his assumption.

Yesterday, an article in the New York Times reflected on the report that 2014 was the hottest year since record-keeping began in 1880. The article also included a refute from a scientist in the last paragraph of the article. The US Department of Defense, NASA, 255 members of the National Academy of Sciences, 11 Nobel laureates, the American meteorological Society, the American physical Society, the American geophysical Union, American Association for the events of science, United States Academy of Sciences, United Nations intergovernmental panel on climate change, are among the scientific organizations declaring, at a 99% confidence level,  that climate change will have a significant impact on human life on earth and the major factor influencing this climate change is the carbon-based economy.

With all the evidence pointed in one direction why it’s so easy to reject the evidence and draw different conclusions? Do we develop assumptions that become truths for us that make it difficult if not impossible for data and evidence to change? I can only conclude that sometimes we develop truths that are not based on solid appearance. I include myself in that category and only hope that my training and approach to life allows me to be open to ideas and cultures.

Sometimes, if we develop enough trust over time with our clients, we can develop a conversation that may allow us to challenge pre-existing assumptions were conclusions. This is extremely difficult, as you read in my prior posts, but it can be done. When you’re unable to develop this trust or present evidence in a way that the client can hear, sometimes you just manage the project best you can. This means you maintain the integrity of the project management processes and communicate with your client, providing the information the client needs to make good decisions. If the client chooses to interpret the information differently, just make sure you have the documentation.

I noticed that this post does not meet my typical standard for optimism and project management. I truly have an optimistic view of the people and our potential. I must admit, that when I see the conversation focus on challenging the evidence rather than developing a solution, I become increasingly worried. When scientists brought evidence that tobacco can be a major contribution to cancer, decision-makers refused initially to believe data; they took time to absorb the information and change their opinions. I’m beginning to believe we may not have the luxury of time on this issue. I’m beginning to believe we may not have the time on this issue.

I will be back to my positive self by my next blog.

Best

Russ